EXPECT DEATH
after a line from Jericho Brown, and one from Alexis Pauline Gumbs
They said three to five years, more likely three. A great blessing. Expect death.
This falls lightly, though she struggles to accept a gift, accept help, accept breath.
What is the wavelength of whiteness? It rejects all other colors, absorbing nothing.
Remember why Harriet Tubman went south. To tell an everlasting truth, expect death.
A pulse, impulse, suffuse, a plum, aplomb, a plumbline, pull through, throughline, thrum.
I am threaded on a wishbone of light, an arrow of breath, a golden needle. Breathe death.
Pine cone in the head, between two hemispheres tucked in a groove, touching nothing.
What else would it see, the parietal eye, an evagination, light receptor, except death?
Slow downstage walk, executed with longing. Quick turn. Extended hand. Turn back.
Suspension of tension, fall and recovery. Rest. I expect death, I accept breath.
HYMN TO HER
Who is the goddess
of the female orgasm
and why don’t we moan her name
imagine her prismatic eyes shattering light
imagine her silver scream and green groans
imagine calling her
with a magic gesture
she is dense matter
and dissolved energy at once
sex may be for the young but an orgasm is forever
I love it when you hold me baby but
vum vum vum
a golden lotus with six red petals
stitched lightly between my hips
who among us can imagine the unimagined
why are there no hymns to her
no shiny golden goddess shrines
we call her with rituals
we invent for ourselves
won’t you celebrate with me
that though they have tried to hide her
she is found
she is found
she is found